Jim Sinclair
Fish Fanatic
This has been an utterly hellacious week. Multiple nights in a row of sleeping only 1 to 4 hours, on the road hundreds of miles, and on Monday my sweetest, lovingest, cuddliest, most caring and nurturing cat died suddenly.
So I've been reeling emotionally from that, and it took about a day and a half to make and implement arrangements for a necropsy in hope of getting an explanation.
This is why the goldfish did not get the water changes they should have, why I did not notice uneaten food accumulating, and why I found what I found when I finally did a water change late last night:
one fish floating right side up, conscious and mobile, but not very active and upon taking a closer look I noticed raggedy fins and a general impression of fuzziness. I set up my hospital tank (a 7 gallon Sterilite storage tote) with clean water, a double dose of Prime, and salt, and put the fish in there.
Then I began doing a double water change in the tank. (By the way, this is not the same tank whose filters clogged a couple weeks ago. This is one of the tanks in the basement.) As the water level receded I saw another fish lying on its side on the tank floor. Fins quite ragged. Fish was alive but not moving anything except mouth and gills. I moved to that one to the hospital tank too, and given the appearance of fungus on both fish plus labored breathing of the immobile fish, put in a few drops of methylene blue.
I did a 2/3 water change of the tank, vacuumed out the uneaten food, and rinsed and squeezed out (in a bucket of tank water, not tap water) the filter media. The fish in the tank appear to be all right and ate a small amount of food. I stayed and watched to make sure they didn't leave any uneaten.
When I finally went to bed around 3:00 a.m. the one fish in the hospital tank that had been mobile but lethargic was still mobile and lethargic, and the one that had been lying on the floor immobile with labored breathing was still lying on the floor immobile but appeared to have somewhat less labored breathing. (It's a little hard to tell for sure once the water is blue.)
I went to bed still grieving for my cat and now also feeling totally miserable about having neglected my fish.
Today the goldfish in the hospital tank are alive, active, responsive, and swimming around normally.
I can't really see fin edges or fuzzy scales because of the methylene blue, but last night there was a definite impression of body fungus and ragged fins.
So now my question is: Should I keep them in the hospital tank with the methylene blue and with a slightly higher salt concentration than is in their regular tank, but without a filter (because I don't have an extra filter to put in that tank)?
Or should I return them to their regular tank which does have salt (1 Tbsp/5 gallons) and filtration and more room?
So I've been reeling emotionally from that, and it took about a day and a half to make and implement arrangements for a necropsy in hope of getting an explanation.
This is why the goldfish did not get the water changes they should have, why I did not notice uneaten food accumulating, and why I found what I found when I finally did a water change late last night:
one fish floating right side up, conscious and mobile, but not very active and upon taking a closer look I noticed raggedy fins and a general impression of fuzziness. I set up my hospital tank (a 7 gallon Sterilite storage tote) with clean water, a double dose of Prime, and salt, and put the fish in there.
Then I began doing a double water change in the tank. (By the way, this is not the same tank whose filters clogged a couple weeks ago. This is one of the tanks in the basement.) As the water level receded I saw another fish lying on its side on the tank floor. Fins quite ragged. Fish was alive but not moving anything except mouth and gills. I moved to that one to the hospital tank too, and given the appearance of fungus on both fish plus labored breathing of the immobile fish, put in a few drops of methylene blue.
I did a 2/3 water change of the tank, vacuumed out the uneaten food, and rinsed and squeezed out (in a bucket of tank water, not tap water) the filter media. The fish in the tank appear to be all right and ate a small amount of food. I stayed and watched to make sure they didn't leave any uneaten.
When I finally went to bed around 3:00 a.m. the one fish in the hospital tank that had been mobile but lethargic was still mobile and lethargic, and the one that had been lying on the floor immobile with labored breathing was still lying on the floor immobile but appeared to have somewhat less labored breathing. (It's a little hard to tell for sure once the water is blue.)
I went to bed still grieving for my cat and now also feeling totally miserable about having neglected my fish.
Today the goldfish in the hospital tank are alive, active, responsive, and swimming around normally.
I can't really see fin edges or fuzzy scales because of the methylene blue, but last night there was a definite impression of body fungus and ragged fins.
So now my question is: Should I keep them in the hospital tank with the methylene blue and with a slightly higher salt concentration than is in their regular tank, but without a filter (because I don't have an extra filter to put in that tank)?
Or should I return them to their regular tank which does have salt (1 Tbsp/5 gallons) and filtration and more room?
